Upper Control Arms (for the seriously dropped) | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Upper Control Arms (for the seriously dropped)

Yomie

Explorer Addict
Joined
November 29, 2000
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City, State
Biloxi, MS
Year, Model & Trim Level
06 Toyota
OK guy's i have done the tortion key flip to get 4+" of drop on my 2nd gen X. My front upper Ball joints are at a SEVERE angle, an angle that is so severe i get scared driving my truck! Sooooo i've done a lil reaserch for extended upper control arms.

As some of you may know the 98+ Ford Ranger uses a SLA type suspention identical to the explorer Except that they use a coil spring on the 2WD, DJM offers a 4" lowering kit for the truck that has coils and extended upper control arms to eliviate the severe angle of the upper balljoint and to eliminate any severe camber problems.

I have looked at the part #'s for the 4WD explorer, 2WD Explorer, and the 2WD Ranger (98+) and it appears that they all use the SAME upper control arm/Ball joint assembly, so if this is the case then the Ranger upper control arms SHOULD work on the explorer.

Remember that ALL my reserch so far has just been with part #'s and not actual installation. I will soon be purchasing a set of these upper control arms to see if they will actuall fit on my explorer and then i will let you good guy's here know what my outcome with them are, if they don't fit i will just sell them to a ranger guy on the other boards.

The reason for this post was jsut to let you Seriously Slammed guy's that there is Possible hopes for our slammed community, hopefully by mid Jan i will have some results for you! Stay tuned and lwt me know your thoughts on this.

I have a thread started here too
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=526590#post526590
 



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WOW Yomie,
When did you make the switch? Last time I saw your truck, it had 35s on it right? Did I completely miss it? Did you sell off your wheelin stuff?:confused:

Robb
 






Actually yes i sold the Body lift to Splashman, the shackles to a jeeper, the fenders to a local with an early model explorer and the wheels and tires to a jeeper. I just felt that it was time for change. My suspention had too many miles on it, with all the strain i kept having to replace various parts here and there. It was fun, i attended alot of car shows this year and it really got me wanting to do something 'radical' to the explorer and seeing all the mini-truckers kinda got to me. with all the lift the explorer really wasn't an eye catcher to the spectators, so i think if i can slam it, throw in a V8 and do other lil things, especially with it being a 2dr i think it might be a lil more of an eye catcher. I just removed the lift about a month ago and my X is now my winter project. For offroading i really didn't like the SLA setup and i'm looking for an early model X or 90's ranger with TTB to be a trail rig now. and yes it had 35's for about 2 weeks
 






Yomie - Hey there. Just came across this thread and this is EXACTLY what i had planned to give a try. I too have cross referenced all the ranger/ explorer a-arms.

Doesnt the complete DJM lower kit come with upper and lower control arms though??

The lower can not be used though cause you would loose your torsion bar mounts.... unless you went coil over and did away with the Torsion bars period. this is the route i am headed. trying to find the correct shocks for the coil over set-up at this time. then to the shop for custom brackets and what not. I have been investigating the RCD coil over lift kit and getting ideas from that- just lowered. I see that they have a type of strut that runs underneath for laterial support around where the original torsion bars were. Let me know if you have made any lead way on this-
 






Nice, lets keep each other updated on this thread.

Nice idea about the coilovers, the only thing i see that may be a problem would be the front CV might be in the way. i thought about doing the coilover, but i'm afraid of the CV being in the way, after i can try to get these upper control arms on there, then i might do a 2WD swap, the spindles and all. THen it would be much easier for a coilover to fit.

for right now i'm going to try the uppers, they are on www.stylinconcepts.com for about $140 and then i'm going to get the MOOG ball joints to put in there. i have also thought of doing the 2WD swap with the ranger springs, but i would have to weld the upper spring perches in there, i dunno yet, i need to get the uppers in there first, i'll let you know!

ANd yes the complete DJM kit comes with all that, or you can order just the uppers
 






i dont really have a comment, i just want to subscribe to this thread to get the updates.:D

i have mulled over the coilover idea for quite some time. now that you have found out about the ranger arms, this would indeed adress the alignment issue. so, im gonna sit back and let you do all the work, and go with mine from there. need any ideas (good or bad), hit me up.

BTW- you can get QA1 coilovers built anyway you could ever imagine for around $450 a set...
 






thanks for the tip.

I was looking into the edlebrock race coilover.... i am still investigating
 






As an alternative to the coil overs you could always bag it :D
 






I would love to run some coilovers and some Ranger arms to correct the camber. Any option that involves safely getting rid of the torsion bars is good.
 






Hartman- i agree 101% and that was the original reason i looked into it. i want one ride height only, i dont care to have it adjustable. i just want it lowered 3"-maybe 4" and still ride good, and be able to get it aligned. i want the performance/handling, not the adjustability.
 






For right now, I don't care too much about adjustablility either. But, if I did run this setup, I would probably end up throwing a bag on the arm and have it work with the coilover somehow. Or I could just bag instead of the coilover...
 






for the rear i eventually want to 4-link and with the 4-link i thought about running coilovers, but now its a toss up, i don't know if i want the coilovers or bags yeet
 






i just want coil overs......i would like to get about another 1" lower and a much better ride.... by loosening the torison bars the front is way to mushy and just plan sucks!!!! I was going to go with a stiffer aftermarket torsion bar but why bother.... coil overs are awesome..... I have them on all four corners of my mustang and love them
 






Just seeing whats up. Sounds like you guys have some good ideas, now one of you get off your ass and do it. Then tell me how hard it was and how much it ended up costing :) :)
 






Originally posted by psychotic
Just seeing whats up. Sounds like you guys have some good ideas, now one of you get off your ass and do it. Then tell me how hard it was and how much it ended up costing :) :)

lol, i'm working on it. My Girl is kinda getting mad at me cause of all the work and money i'm spending on the truck, but i keep telling her i need to get it done before we move in April, i have a secret stash i'm working from though, so hopefully she won't get too mad at me, lol.

Hey psychotic did you get your X perfectly aligned after you did the tortion flip, or are you riding around on madd camber also?
 






I had some camber adjustors put in. The camber is off slightly, but it isn't noticable. You can only tell if you look at it just right, or study it a little.
 






u can use the lower control arms if u modify them and r baggin it. thats what im doin to a edge, same as X.
 






Yeah but we're looking to make the upper control arm fit to correct the CV angle and the camber.....right?
 






Originally posted by Hartman
Yeah but we're looking to make the upper control arm fit to correct the CV angle and the camber.....right?
thats what im in it for... although "CV angle" is not an issue on mine. :D
 



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CV angle is not an issue for me either, yet...
 






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